A shadow began to fall across Hyesan. Beggars were appearing everywhere, especially around the markets. This was a sight I’d never seen in our country before. There were vagrant children, too. At first, only in twos and threes, but soon many of them, migrating to Hyesan from the countryside. Their parents had perished of hunger, leaving them to fend for themselves, without relatives. They were nicknamed kotchebi (‘flowering swallows’) and, like birds, they seemed to gather in flocks. One of their survival tricks was to distract a market vendor while accomplices snatched the food and ran off.
